Here's the next chapter, so please enjoy it. Oh, and to ;Don't worry about it. I'm glad that my writing is influencing yours, and giving you ideas. It means that the writing is good.
Honestly, I got most of my Idea's for things that happen in my fics from millions of other little influences, from books, movies, and other fics. There's no real such thing as a truly original Idea.
The only thing I ask is that you don't blatantly copy me. You can use influences from my fic, and even some
Any who, here's your next chapter.
*****
Over the heavy pavement of the courtyard, into the groaning well house, down the ancient, decaying well, out into a deep forest, across the new planted rice fields, through the grassy plains, in-between thick wood titans, out across the sandy beach, down the line where azure sky met sapphire waves, up to a small island, in the middle of a young forest: here stood Shinjuku. The city of youkai.
The walls were thick, white marble, and glistened in the sun. The parapets on top were high, decorative, deceptive. The gates were wide, tall, ornate, dangerous. Deep in the walls, heavy iron gates decayed into history.
Through the iron gates, past the crowds in the alabaster streets, through the streets, buildings, mansions, and palaces was a tomb. It held no body. The body was elsewhere, hidden in a black pearl. The memory, however, was here. So thick, so present, that one could have felt the specter's hand on his shoulder.
On top of the tomb was a monument. It was a statue, cut from solid, plain gray stone. It seemed out of place in the sparkling city. The statue depicted a youkai. A tai youkai. A lord among the nobles. His eyes were set straight forward, his head held aloft, his jaw set, his sharp features accentuated by the sharpness of the stone. His stance was proud, he stood tall, his back perpendicular to the ground. His feet were planted firmly on the earth, and his arms stood strait out in front of him. They came together and grasped at the hilts of two hard ornate steel katanas. His long hair framed his face, and tumbled down his back. He was dressed in battle armor: a chest and shoulder bar set on his shoulders, and his colorful yet deadly practical haori and hakama were tucked into the black bracers on his arms and legs. He oozed dignity and anyone who laid eyes on him found respect.
In front of the monument stood another youkai, this one not a statue. He was tall and lithe. He wore an ornate red and white haori with an equally ceremonious white hakama. Around his waist he wore a yellow sash. In the sash was a blade, the handle worn a haggard. Around one shoulder was a half guard bar, much like the statue wore. Around the other shoulder was a very large, ornate boa. The youkai's face was handsome and noble, his blue eyes flat and emotionless, revealing nothing. On his forehead was tattooed a blue crescent moon. Nobody had the heart to tell him that the boa looked like a big fuzzy python.
There was a sudden scream from behind him, followed by a splash.
His eyes closed. Nobody except for her.
"Sesshoumaru-Sama!" A happy childlike voice rang out from the same direction the splash had come from. "Look, I caught a fish!"
The youkai shot one last glance at the statue, and then turned around. A few yards away, there was an ornate marble pond. There were a total of four around the statue, and each one was a home to a giant goldfish. In the pond he was looking at stood a girl. She was wearing a brightly colored kimono, with a large pink cherry blossom stuck in the ribbon. Her hair was long and black, with one shank of it tied up in a messy topknot. The youkai had tried many times to get her to comb it out, but he had no such luck. She remained resilient as ever. Currently she was very wet, and clutched in her arms was the pond's previous resident, thrashing madly. "Can I keep him, Sesshoumaru-Sama?"
Sesshoumaru blinked and closed his eyes, accentuating the purple striped tattoos on his cheeks. "You may keep the fish in the pond, Rin." He said, his voice a rich sonorous bass.
Rin nodded, and laughed as the fish finally managed to get away. "I'm gonna name him Se-maru, cause it sounds like your name, Sesshoumaru-Sama."
"I am flattered to have a goldfish names after me." Sesshoumaru said dryly, turning away from the pond, towards a long, white street. "Come, Rin. We are going home."
"Yes, milord!" Rin said happily, waving goodbye to Se-maru, and running to catch up with the tai youkai.
Sesshoumaru walked steadily, although walking could hardly describe his movement. If you were to pour liquid grace and calm into a youkai shaped mold, you would get Sesshoumaru. As he walked, his feet barely touched the ground. His footfalls never made even the slightest noise. His light, baggy clothing and the heavy boa added an ethereal light to him, and anyone who made eye contact stopped thinking that he was walking altogether. Sesshoumaru simply moved the rest of the universe around himself.
Rin caught up, and fell into pace beside him, taking two steps for every stride of his. She was a short girl, and he was very tall. She barely came up past his waist, not counting the topknot. Had he wanted to, he could simply have used her as an armrest. Her age in of itself, however, was a mystery. She was youthful, that was sure, but other than that he knew very little. He never bothered to find out, really, and he knew little of the years of humans. However, Sesshoumaru was curious, by his very nature. It was what had gotten his stuck with the girl in the first place. He had found her, mute, beaten and bruised. And he asked a simple question. He could still hear his voice.
"Where did you get those bruises?"
He asked a simple question. He looked down at the little girl at his side. He got a more complex answer than he could possibly have dreamed. Rin had in fact turned out to be a major asset, despite his early misgivings. She was young, small, and easily overlooked. And she listened. She seemed to have an unearthly talent for it. He had no doubt that he could ask her what the conversations that they had heard on the way over to the monument were, and she could tell him things that even he had overlooked. And she obedient. She was not a slave. Slaves hated their masters, no matter how kind or cruel they were. It was part of instinct. They would bail out at the last minute. Soldiers, mercenaries, and bounty hunters. They all wanted pay, in some sort or another. Once they got their money, they were gone. But Rin… Rin would do whatever he told her to, no matter what.
But he still knew so little about her. He assumed she had been abused in the past, for when he had found her she wouldn't speak, and was covered in bruises. But other than that, he knew nothing. She could be anywhere from twelve to five, maybe even older if her growth was stunted from her past. And her mental state splayed all the way from infant to old philosopher. She felt no remorse about making a pet out of whatever crossed her fancy (this included about half the citizens of Shinjuku), yet she had easily the shrewdest mind he had come across next to his own.
His eyes traced suddenly to the side of the street. In fact most of the eyes on the street were guided there. It was quite a spectacle.
"Hey!" Remarked Rin, pointing. "There's Uncle Aaron!"
The character in question was very odd looking. He was tall, almost as tall as Sesshoumaru. He was exceptionally lanky as well, having a thin, easy looseness about him. His hair was blonde, and couldn't be described past that. The odd angles and curves that it flowed out from his head in really had no appropriate words. But what really caught (and blinded) the eye were his clothes. The clothes he wore seemed to come from a different world. He wore what almost looked like a haori, but it was open, not tucked in, and so long that it came down to his knees. It had no sleeves, and it had a huge sweeping collar that came almost level with the middle of his face. It was also bright, hot pink. His chest was bare under the odd coat, except for two belts strapped in an X across his athletic torso. There were three daggers on each of the belts. He wore normal Hakama pants… provided one overlooked the fact that they were bright, neon green, and clashed so horribly with the haori that a blind cave slug would scream in the mere presence of them. The hakama was held up with a length of rope. Tucked into the rope were three katanas, a rapier, and three pieces of wood that could be fitted together to form a quick spear or staff. Strapped across his back was a long naginata. He had bracers on both arms, and one shin. The foot with the bracer was bare, the other had a sandal. His hands were wrapped with fingerless gloves.
Currently, the man was dancing. Or at least, it was called dancing. Sesshoumaru personally felt that 'dance' was not, despite contrary belief, synonymous with 'flailing all limbs wildly in all directions and hoping that you don't look silly.' He curved, contorted, and all around in general thrashed like a wounded trout.
Slowly, he made his way over to one of the street vendors, and, still flailing, smiled at him. "Hey bud, I don't suppose you could help me out, huh?"
The street vendor looked very nervous, and made sure not to make any sudden moves. He knew exactly who the man was: Aaron. But the thing on the front of his mind was not the man's name, but the fact that if he didn't help the man, he would probably end up with a knife in his face; Aaron was the most dangerous thing on the face of the planet. "Umm…" The vendor stuttered, his large ears drooping as doom approached.
"Look, I'm looking for a couple of humans, and a kitsune. Have you seen them?" Aaron asked, doing a back flip.
"Umm…" The shopkeeper started backing away. "I'm very sorry, sir, I've seen many kitsune's, but no humans."
Aaron stopped dancing, and looked eagerly at him. "So you've seen a kitsune? Any really shrimpy ones? About yea high?"
The shopkeeper swallowed, and shook his head slightly.
Aaron looked disappointed, then shook his head, and shrugged. Then he started dancing again. One of his flailing muscular limbs flung out a crashed into the youkai's face, sending him flying back into his cart.
Sesshoumaru felt a light tap on his leg. He looked down. Rin was also dancing, a big smile on her face. She was frighteningly good at it.
His eyes traced back to Aaron, and narrowed. Aaron had stopped dancing, and seemed to be noticing for the first time all the eyes starring at him. "Zounds!" He shouted, his voice a baritone, yet somehow carrying a slightly high pitched crazy edge. "I've been spotted!"
He suddenly whirled into action throwing three of his knives into the alabaster walls across from him, leaping into the air at the same time. By the time he had landed, he had his staff parts out and assembled. He leapt again, caught the first knife with one end of the staff, pulled it up to the second one, then the third one, then proceeded to scale the rest of the wall with only his staff. He got to the top of the building, and was out of earshot almost instantly.
That was Aaron for you. He and Rin were the only official free humans in Shinjuku, although there were at least three more that Sesshoumaru knew about. He didn't do anything about them though. It was always good to have a little unrest in a city. It kept people on their toes. The rest of the humans were all slaves. Not by any particular malice on Sesshoumaru's part, but for the tradition of it. Sesshoumaru couldn't possibly change it at this point. More and more unrest. A little was good. A lot and you were in trouble.
But Aaron… Aaron encompassed all the unrest he needed, along with almost everything else. Sesshoumaru didn't throw him out for one reason only: He probably couldn't if he tried. It irked Sesshoumaru to know a human (a species that while he did not despise, he did deem inferior) like Aaron existed. Aaron was odd. He had been around since his father's time, and had always looked like he did now… except his clothes were normally even more outrageous. He was one of the few people that managed to make Sesshoumaru feel uncomfortable. No human should be able to be older than Sesshoumaru, and still look the same age. And he was human. He was probably the most human person Sesshoumaru had met. The tai-youkai's nose didn't lie. He could even tell when someone was masking their scent, even my magic. Nothing fooled him.
And now Aaron was asking about humans and a kitsune. He didn't like the sound of it. They sounded like InuYasha's friends. His bastard half brother was becoming a nuisance. He was headstrong and arrogant. But he also had a surprising cunning streak. It ran in the family. Sesshoumaru had put out a bounty on InuYasha's head, but perhaps that had been a mistake. Even InuYasha wouldn't be stupid enough to be caught willingly by the bounty hunters. He would be laying low. And the half dog could disappear very well. Maybe there was some connection with Aaron and the hanyou.
He kneeled down, and pulled Rin close. "Follow him, and find out what he's doing." He said simply. Rin nodded, and ran off, her arms flung out like and flapping frantically, attempting to see if she could fly any better than the last few times she tried.
Sesshoumaru stood up again, and continued down the street, not looking back. When he had first brought Rin here, a few youkai had thought she was just a free slave up for grabs. All the other youkai learned that she wasn't. The guilty ones didn't get a chance to learn. He had every confidence that she would be safe. And he also knew that by the end of the day he would know exactly what Aaron was up to. He had to keep Shinjuku safe after all.
He looked up, and cracked a rare smile as he walked. It wasn't a big smiled, simply a slight up curve of the lips. This was his city now. It wasn't his like it was his toy, or his possession. It was simply his. His father, the mighty InuTaisho, had been the leader of this city. He was the overlord of the west. And now… now it was his role. It was amazing how well he took to leadership. He looked up at the city, and even he, Sesshoumaru, felt pride. It was beautiful, truly, and utterly beautiful. In the sunrise, the city glowed like gold, and under moonlight, it was the purest silver. It was his child, just as it was his father's.
It was odd, but he seemed to be built for politics. His mind worked analytically, shrewd, considering any possibilities. Granted, he couldn't imagine himself making speeches, but in Shinjuku those were optional.
His smile disappeared, and he continued down the street. He had a meeting to attend.
*****
Rin ran down the street, occasionally skipping or jumping on one foot. She liked Uncle Aaron. He was funny. She could never tell why Sesshoumaru never laughed at him. She put her hand to her forehead, and looked up. She could barely make out the outline of the crazy guy jumping from rooftop to rooftop. She shrugged, and ran on ahead, her small size and fleet feet traveling along the seamless stone slabs effortlessly. She turned into the large central square, and briefly looked into the large pond where Se-maru lived. She reached in a stroked his head briefly, then took off in the other direction, running past the statue of InuTaisho, Sesshoumaru's father, and towards a little hole in-between two of the white buildings. It was a small little ally. One of the ones that respectable folk didn't know existed. Aaron wasn't respectable, and Rin couldn't pronounce the word yet.
She dashed in, and pulled the curtain that hung over the entrance inside. She was met with an odd smell. It wasn't terrible, but not really pleasant… at all. Okay, maybe a little terrible. Well, very terrible. But Rin didn't mind that much. She had been sent to spy on Aaron more than enough. She was used to it. She looked around the little area. There was a pile of clothes in the corner. She guessed that acted as Aaron's bed. But on all the walls were all the interesting things. There were axes, swords, spears, whips, and things that Rin was probably to young to know what did.
She shrugged, and sat down on the side the 'bed' and waited. It was maybe five minutes before Aaron showed up. He dropped down out of nowhere, landing right beside her. He showed no real surprise at her being there. "Heya, Rin." He said, not sitting down for more than three seconds. He was instantly up again, unsheathing random weapons from his rope and putting them back up on the wall. He swung the naginata over his shoulder, and tossed up to its holster ten feet up. It landed perfectly in the wood slots. He pulled the six daggers out of the belts without looking, and didn't even bother to put them into their sheaths. They disappeared onto his clothes. Somewhere.
"So, 'sup eh Rin?" He asked, turning around.
She inspected a hand. "Sesshoumaru asked me to spy on you again."
"Really?"
"Yep."
They sat in silence for a while.
"So, why are you looking for humans? You know where they all are already."
Aaron nodded, "Yeah, but I'm lookin' for new ones. You haven't seen any, have you?"
Rin, blinked, then shook her head. "New humans in Shinjuku? I haven't heard of any. There were some new births, but they were mostly hanyou."
Aaron scrunched his face up. "Okay, I guess they haven't been here."
"They?" Rin prompted after a moment.
Aaron turned around again, and grabbed a broadsword off a rack, and began polishing it. "A little while ago, InuYasha stopped in, and asked for me to keep an eye out for some friends of his. He seems to think they might be coming here."
Rin thought for a moment. "It's that guy with the wind tunnel, isn't it? And the hunter girl."
Aaron sniffed, and nodded. "Yep, that's them. Apparently after all that scuffle a month ago, they got separated. But now they're trying to get back together. InuYasha thinks that they're still on the island."
Rin nodded, and stood up. "So, do you think InuYasha's still here?" She asked.
Aaron thought for a moment. "That rascal?" He asked. "Nah! InuYasha's getting too smart for that. The pup's starting to grow up. As soon as I told him Sesshoumaru had a bounty on him, then he hightailed it out of town. I wouldn't count on him being around again for a while."
Rin nodded, and thought for a moment, then leveled her gaze at Aaron. Her brown eyes were no longer as innocent as they were around Sesshoumaru. She had no doubt that her 'master' knew just how bright she was, but still, it was fun pretend to be totally innocent. Not that she was a cunning mastermind; she still rather enjoyed being a little girl, something that she was never allowed to be when she actually was a little girl, but still, she couldn't deny her naturally cunning mind. "So… why are you telling me this? If Sesshoumaru-Sama really wants InuYasha dead, you're really not helping any by telling me all these things."
Aaron shrugged, and put the broadsword back. "Honestly, I don't care what Sesshoumaru thinks about his brother, nor do I care if he knows what I'm doing. Sesshoumaru couldn't take me out even if he wanted to, and trust me, he knows it too."
Rin shrugged. "If you say so… I think that he just likes you around because you give information away so easily. You'd best not get on his bad side." She cautioned.
Aaron chuckled. "Sure, whatever you say." He said, laughing lightly.
Rin shrugged, and turned around. "Well then, I'm off."
Aaron laughed slightly, and grabbed a long yari off another shelf, and began sharpening it.
"Oh, and you have to teach me how to dance like that sometime." Rin called out as she dashed out from between the long curtains, out into the streets of Shinjuku. She should tell Sesshoumaru about this.
*****
Sesshoumaru walked up the long stairs to his palace. He didn't like his palace very much. Neither had his father, or his grandfather. But his great grandfather had a taste for theatrics, and it showed. He was the one who had originally established the actual city of Shinjuku. Before then, the youkai had just lived there, always the strongest, because the dragons simply killed the weak. But then his Sesshoumaru's ancestors had come, and appealed to Vadise, the leader of the dragons to be able to stay. It wasn't an act of humility; it was an act of desperation. The dragons didn't like him, at all. However, he somehow managed to get them to let him start a city, and they even helped make it. Nowhere was that more evident than the palace.
It curved upwards and outwards in a monstrous blossom of marble spires, alabaster parapets, and granite walls. It wasn't ugly. In fact, it was quite beautiful. But it was so impractical. His ancestor lived for maybe a year after it was built, before he launched off to enslave the humans of Japan. He died at their inferior hands.
And so, from then on, humans were slaves in Shinjuku. And his grandfather, InuShinku, was left with a hulking, impractical palace. There could not have been two people more different than InuShinku and his father. While his father was old fashioned, and had a mass superiority complex, InuShinku was smart, cunning, and one of the best leaders ever known. He knew when to be harsh, when to be cruel, when to be fair, when to be kind, and when to be cunning. Even InuTaisho didn't compare.
Sesshoumaru hated the palace for the same reason: it was gaudy, grandiose, and unnecessary. It marred his city. But the dragons had spent time building it, and they took nothing of theirs lightly. And now, now he had to go pay their price for allowing his arrogant great-grandfather to settle here. So be it.